I recently received a text message from long time RCB member, Jeff Chessher. He recently moved to Surprise Valley near the town of Eagleville, Ca. Jeff offered his place in Eagleville to us for a stop over camping spot sometime in late summer, perhaps September. I used to own a ranch a few miles from Jeff's place so I know the area really well. If there is enough interest, I would lead a ride from here to there and back and would enjoy sharing the most beautiful place I've ever lived with my friends at RCB! We could leave on a Friday or Saturday and be in Eagleville in 5 1/2 hours. It's 300 miles approximately. For those that do not camp there is a motel in Cedarville about 12 miles north with restaurants and fuel. Looking out from the front porch of Jeff's house you can look across the valley and gaze at the rolling Nevada Mountain and Hayes Peak. From the back porch you look up at the Warner Mts. to the west and marvel at their majestic ruggedness. I have a route in mind that takes us up through Susanville and then up through the Modoc National Forrest to Adin and then over to Alturas and up over Cedar Pass to Cedarville and Surprise Valley. It definitely is a surprise when you ride over the top of the Warners at 6500' and drop down into the green and luscious valley. There are all kinds of places to go once we are there for those that are adventurous and want more time on the road or just chill out a Jeff's place and enjoy the scenery and prepare for the ride back. Let me know if you are interested in visiting the most remote part of the state of California, the part that most people don't know about! Any questions you can e-mail me at jr@surewest.net. Rand Olson

I think it will be fun to ride up to see Jeff and have a BBQ at his place and then ride a different route home the next day. Many people haven't been to the Surprise Valley because it's on on the way to anywhere. Some of us rode through there on the "Road to No Where" in 2008 when we had the contest. But other than that few people ever visit that part of the world. It's my favorite place in all the world and the prettiest place I've ever lived! Rand

I am in Surprise Valley fairly often for work related reasons. If you have GS participants or anyone wishing to ride some easy dirt roads you can go up through Gerlach NV or go on the west side of Pyramid Lake and on to Smoke Creek and into Eagleville.

We could do that or separate into 2 groups. Some of the guys don't like dirt all that well. You could take the GS riders and I could lead the asphalt group. Either way it's a great ride. What do you do up there in terms of business? It's pretty remote!

I won't be leading any groups, just throwing out a couple of alternatives for the dirt crowd. There is plenty of dirt/gravel roads to explore from Surprise Valley itself. Keep heading east through Cedarville, ride up into the Warners, or go north through the valley and take the Fandango Pass and loop back to Alturas and then Cedarville are a few examples.

Thanks for the heads up. I've never been on the road on the west side of Pyramid but lived in Cedarville for a number of years and ran cattle all over on the east side toward the Sheldon Game Refuge and in Long Valley. Don't know the Warner's all that well but Jeff does. All suggestions are welcome, thanks. Rand

I talked to Jeff last night and we settled on a tentative date for the ride up to Eagleville as being the 27-29th of August. This doesn't seem to conflict with any other event or ride. If you would like more information or have decided to ride with us please let us know as food has to be purchased. As I mentioned previously Chessher's have a great place to camp but if camping is not your thing, there are 2 motel/hotels in Cedarville. You can access them on line and check them out. Cedarville is about 12 miles north of Eagleville and there are also stores and cafes there. For those that will ride up with us disregard this next post....Friday the 27th is the start of "The Burning Man" which means that if you are going to ride up through Reno and Gerlach it's going to be pretty crowded on that road although the scenery maybe pretty interesting! For those that are going with me that will not be a problem as I'm going by a different route. Some of you may wish to ride down to Gerlack from Eagleville. It's not very far about an hour or so maybe a bit more. It will be chaos down there. But the people that are with our group will be unaffected by "The Burning Man".

For other activities there's a ride from Ft. Bidwell over to Mosquito (Nevada) and down through Long Valley that's graded gravel and certainly any one with a GS would have no problem with. There's another ride that takes you from Duck Lake (south of Eagleville) over to Ravendale on 395 that's also graded gravel and a good road. There's lots to do up there.

8/17/15- I have been reminded by several of you that I have not been very diligent in communicating the details of the ride coming up on August 28th. The Surprise Valley Ride. We'll meet at Susie's and be on our way at 9AM. Riding up Hwy 65 to Marysville then up to Oroville via hwy. 70 through the Feather River Canyon on 89 then north on 89 through Greenville to Lake Almanor. Following 147 along the south edge of Lake Almanor we'll turn east on hwy 36 to Susanville and stop for lunch. A distance of about 182 miles. Then north on 139 through Modoc National Forest to Adin, Ca., from Adin we turn east on 299 and ride to Alturas. At Alturas we ride north to the Cedarville, Ca., turn off and head east up Cedar Pass down into Cedarville, Ca. Once in Cedarville we turn south on county road #1 (the only main road in the valley) ridding south towards Gerlach we reach the town of Eagleville and Jeff's place is south of Eagleville, just past the Eagleville Volunteer Fire Department BBQ grounds and on the right hand side of the road is Jeff's place. It's the greenest thing around and the address is: 12821County Rd. #1, Eagleville, Ca., 96110. Jeff's phone is 530-279-0015 home, cell: 916-539-0112.

Friday night we'll be BBQ ing at Jeff's place and there will be adequate places to pitch your tents on really lush, green grass. Saturday morning we'll head to Cedarville about 8AM and have breakfast at the Country Hearth Cafe in Cedarville. We'll then head north on CR #1 to Ft. Bidwell. From Ft. Bidwell we ride east and go on a well maintained gravel 2 track road up through some of the most beautiful northern Nevada desert country you have ever seen. The ride is approximately 90 miles and about 85% is on good dirt roads. I wouldn't hesitate to take my LT on it and it will not beat up either you or your bike!!! We are going to stop about 1/2 way through on a high outlook that you can see at least 50 miles in any direction and Jeff's going a head of us with his Jeep and will have drinks, water and things at that stopping point.

We come off the hill and ride around Mosquito Lake and down long valley on the Barrel Springs Rd. to Vya. Then we'll take Rd. 8A back over 49 mountain to Cedarville to have another BBQ at Jeff's place. We ride home on Sunday. As I just mentioned I just rode the Susanville-Adin route and it's 337 miles. The Saturday route is about 90 and is optional for those that would like to ride it. Those that don't there is a paved route that we have laid out for you that's pretty scenic as well. There's plenty of gas at Cedarville, Alturas, Susanville, etc. so that's not a problem. Cedarville for those of you that have never been there is a quaint little cow town tucked away from just about everything. It's really not on the way to anywhere except the little town of Gerlach. By the way the "Burning Man" is going on that week and I would advise everyone not to go down that direction. The "Burning Man" will not affect us in the least!

I would like to comment on the Saturday's ride... the country is beautiful but very wild in the respect that I would encourage all of us to remember that we'll be a long way from town. We are going to be riding very carefully and pretty slowly. The scenery is really something else and very beautiful and changes all the time. Some of the time we'll be riding up along the rim rocks with "quakers" growing along the lee sides and then across some beautiful meadows and down in some neat valleys. There will be lots of antelope, deer and cows out there so we'll have to watch for them. Once we leave, Jeff and his Jeep, he will be behind us so if anyone has a mechanical problem Jeff and I can get you out and he'll have water and that sort of thing. I think that we are going to want to spread out and ride slowly to keep the dust down and allow everybody to see the remarkable views and I encourage everyone to keep watch and be responsible for the guy behind you. If you loose his lights slow down until you make contact with him again.

I think it will be a great experience for all attending and if there is enough interest Jeff said that he'd consider doing it again next year. There are enough routes up here to do a new one for about 10 years!! So for all GS riders this will be an excellent time to hone your skills. Jeff and I call this road an "easy GS ride". Any questions please give me a call and I'd be happy to answer any questions that come up. I'm at 916-599-0819.

Hi, I was thinking of going on this Surprise Valley trip but there is no availability at the motel in Cederville. Also, I only have 262 miles on my new 2016 R1200 RS and don't have enough time to put the rest of the miles up to 600 for the first service. I would love to take this ride because I rode it in 1978 on my R100 (red with cafe fairing) and did the "not too bad gravel road NE into Nevada. In fact there was a guy who had a BMW museum in Fort Bidwell (really!). I bought a ride-off stand from him. We had dinner and he put me up for the night. I think this will be a great trip and I'm sure you will all have a good time.

I will be there this weekend. As of now, Tuesday, CJ Gilzean and I are planning to leave Fri morning. If work prevents CJ from going, I will leave Fri, and may try to meet you up around Greenville/Chester area.

I thought I would post the way points that I'm going to have on my GPS if any of you would like to have them entered before we leave. OrovilleGreenvilleSusanvilleAdinEagleville

I thought a good lunch stop would be in Susanville at the little hamburger stand just as you leave town to go up the hill on 139. There's plenty of gas at Cedarville and it's a lot cheaper than Alturas. There's an indian gas station there called "Rabit Traxx" that we always use. Does anyone have any questions or is there anything that I've forgotten? Rand

Remember if you're coming up from Reno through Gerlach, allow for a couple of hours additional time as the "Burning Man" is just getting started in Gerlach and there will be 76,000 people trying to get into Gerlach in the next several days. DO NOT GO THRU RENO TO SURPRISE VALLEY IF TIME IS A FACTOR!

Greg Gibson wrote:Anybody have any idea of how bad the traffic would be through Gerlach on Friday?

NV 447 is already horrible. Up here in Reno, there's a caravan of RVs already blocking roads, and other trucks are delivering water, food, bikes and tents (and wood) to Gerlach to be sold. Charter pilots are seeing backups north of Nixon, and my golf cart lady tells me of an eight-hour round-trip yesterday (!) to deliver Golf Carts.

Walmarts and Costcos and such have huge pallets of water blocking parts of their parking lots. They're anticipating 80K+ people will need a lot of water.

Wise words, Phil! It's incredible that you didn't come up with the idea of the Burning Man. Googling it I found out that tickets are $390 each with additional monies required for parking and as you pointed out they're expecting north of 76000 people. Do the math!

Yep, wouldn't pay $390.00 per ticket to see the Beatles, (well maybe), but to go out in the desert with 76,000 to watch some bon fires? Obviously I'm getting old as I wouldn't go to this crap at gun point! Rode last weekend all over southern Oregon. Epic roads, little traffic, lots of smoke. 2 PEOPLE! No crowds. How we roll I guess. You folks have a great time this weekend and ride safe. Bring back some pics or it didn't happen.

What a great event! Thanks to Jeff and Mo for hosting, Rand for organizing and the riders for a great time. The dirt ride was awesome. Now I know that tiny gravel is not the same as sand and Rand's idea of washboard is different than mine . Had a blast. I had to leave Saturday -felt too guilty having too much of a great time. Passed by Gerlach on the way home - interesting crowd. Hope we have this event again next year!

Thanks to you and Jeff Chesser for the great weekend. Let's do it again if Jeff is willing. Thanks for laying out the off-road tour, maybe next year we can do an advanced loop as well.

We went south and cruised through Gerlach. South of town, there was about 5 miles of stopped "traffic" going north, and then 80 miles of bumper-to-bumper heading up from Wadsworth. Amazing in so many ways.

Thanks to you and Jeff Chesser for the great weekend. Let's do it again if Jeff is willing. Thanks for laying out the off-road tour, maybe next year we can do an advanced loop as well.

We went south and cruised through Gerlach. South of town, there was about 5 miles of stopped "traffic" going north, and then 80 miles of bumper-to-bumper heading up from Wadsworth. Amazing in so many ways.

Yes, thanks to Jeff and Mo for hosting us. Might have been the plushest grass I've ever set my tent on.

That was amazing, all the cars stopped trying to get to Burning Man. Some might still be on the road even now.